No Man's Sky | Diary of an Inter-Galactic Traveller - 005 - Pearls, Pirates, Monsters and DEATH.

🌌 Dear Diary,

I died today... I was digging up a container that promised to hold some useful tech within, and when I opened it, radiation levels suddenly spiked dramatically. I felt ill as I tried running back to my ship, but I didn't make it -

But wait... I've gotten ahead of myself. Last you all knew, I was on Vius, the radioactive planet, and about to set off in search of the third planet I knew was in the system, in the hopes of it being a better planet to settle on.

Well, I did just that, but when I got into space and saw the space station, I thought it would be a good idea to go back there and see if I could sell some of the more valuable things in my inventory, thereby earning credits as well as freeing up a few valuable slots in my backpack.

Before I could even get there, however, I was already scanned and hailed by pirates. I fumbled with my controls, not knowing how to accept the incoming transmission, and so, thinking I was ignoring their hail, they started attacking me. Just two ships - I took care of them fairly easily and gained a better standing with the Korvax because of it.

That being done, I approached the space station and parked in one of the docking bays.

~~

I immediately noticed that unlike the first time I had been there, the place seemed a bit busier. There were other ships parked! A bit hesitant at first, I approached the pilots of these ships and tried talking to them. Surprisingly, they spoke my language! Perhaps because they're well travelled tradesman?

They were all willing to buy and sell different things, and they all wanted to sell me their ships... The cheapest of them, however, was over a million credits! It seems I have a long way to go in terms of finances. But maybe not too far... After selling the underground relics I had found, and a few other things, I had over 150 000 credits.

There was one ship parked that was over 7 million credits that I fell in love with a little bit... Huge amounts of storage space, big and sleek design... One day, I'll buy such a ship, cash, without even blinking.

Anyway, happy with my dealings, and with some free space in my inventory, I set out again.

And what happens? I'm hardly out of the station, and just about to start mining some asteroids, when blip-blip-blip... Another pirate is hailing me and again, I miss my chance to answer them. Again, I made short work of them and got on with my mining.

The asteroids were mostly silver, and some gold... But I was looking for tritium, which my information database says is abundant in asteroids. After filling up an entire ship-slot with silver, and finding almost as much gold, I hit tritium. I wish I could identify the kind of asteroid that contains it, but they all look pretty much the same, unfortunately.

~~

Finally, I pointed my nose towards the third, as yet unvisited planet, and put my pulse engine full-throttle.

As I approached it, it became quickly obvious that it was not the dreamy, lush planet I was hoping for. With a sinking feeling of disappointment, I took in its black, dead surface with resolve to land on it anyway, just to see what I could find.

Just as I was about to reach it, however, I got pulled out of full-throttle by yet another pirate scan!! ... This time, I answered the hail - they offered to let me go for over 100 000 credits. I considered negotiating that ransom down a bit but then thought, hell no, these are my hard-earned credits, and closed communications.

~~

Once again, I found myself in a dogfight, this time with three ships. It was harder going than the first two times but I still managed to blow them all to bits. The Korvax thanked me again by upgrading my standing with them to "Test-Subject" level... Uhm... That's a good thing, I guess?

At last, I entered the atmosphere of the third planet. At first, it really did seem completely dead and uninteresting, with a dismal, black surface of rock.

The only good thing was that I didn't need my hazard protection - only life support. No radiation, no extreme weather or toxicity. Just devoid of anything.

But then things did get interesting. I saw something odd as I was flying low so I landed and discovered the strangest red, cubic crystals growing from the rock, floating in the same way as the blue crystals from before. I couldn't mine them, but found that I was able to handle them, and as I did so, received navigational data cores from them... I can't imagine how or why.

I then wondered about and found a cave. A few meters inside, I found cocoons of some sort which, when opened, had the most beautiful pearl-like orbs within them. So bright and shiny that I could hardly stand looking at them. I collected as many as I could carry.

~~

Feeling very pleased with myself, I headed out of the cave and back to the surface. I didn't know if these things would be of any use to me practically, but I was almost certain they'd fetch a nice price on the galactic market. If only I had stored them in my ship's compartments instead of in my backpack... But more on that later.

I started thinking that it might be a good idea to settle on this planet anyway, even though it was so dead. It seemed to possess valuable resources which I could spend my time collecting and selling, while I set up base and got accustomed to how the base computer worked...

I was thinking all this as I was getting back to my ship, when I found what I thought was another one of the egg sacs from the cave, only it was solitary, and out on the surface. I found I couldn't open it, so I tried mining it with my laser...

Turns out that was not a good idea. Suddenly these... creatures... sprang from the earth and started chasing me!

Creatures with green-glowing eye and sharp teeth. That's all I can remember, because I wasn't paying much attention to details as I ran towards my ship as fast as I could. I did try looking back and zapping one with my laser, but that only served to make them all even angrier.

I got to my ship just in time. Once did bite hold of my shoe but I managed to kick it off and get my leg inside just as the door locked shut.

~~

That experience, of course, made me think twice about settling there. I b-lined out of there and decided to head back to Vius and set up base there. Yes, it was radioactive, but at least nothing had attacked me while I was there, and it also had that mysterious messenger who was likely still underground somewhere, waiting for someone to find them.

It was actually a pleasure to get back to the planet I had so far spent the most time on. It's not a lush, green planet, but it has its own beauty and I started even liking the idea of calling it home.

~~

While flying around, looking for a good spot to finally set up base, I found a crash site of some kind of huge space freighter. I landed nearby and took a look around. My visor informed me that there were valuable cargo holds buried underneath the surface, so I got to work excavating them.

And this was where it all went wrong. Or at least, it was supposed to have all gone wrong - yet here I am, telling you about it.

Thing is, I dug up a cubic container of some kind, and opened it, as I said. Within was a canister of anti-matter, but as soon as I'd opened the container, radiation levels spiked and I had to get out of the hole I'd dug and back to my ship as fast as possible.

I didn't make it. My ship was still a good 10 metres away when everything went black. I remember thinking a final thought... "No... Not like this!" and then nothing.

Next thing I knew, I was conscious, standing next to my ship, healthy, radiation fine. The only change was that my backpack's inventory had been cleared out. Annoying, but I wasn't going to complain because I was alive. Alive, somehow, when that radiation should have killed me.

I can't explain it. I suspect something... But it is so bizarre that I'll need further proof before voicing it. I'll just code-name it "Hypothesis X" for now.

Anyway, after that, I decided I needed to find a nice, safe spot to settle down, build my base, and recover all that I'd lost.

The going is slow... But I'm not going to give up. I want to know who I am. And what my purpose is. Who was I before? Was there even a 'before'? So many questions...

Thank you for giving me your time, as always.